Cultural implications of medially constructed voices (Grimme Research College)
Made possible by the Grimme Research College
Duration: Jan. to Dec. 2020
Responsible: Marcus Erbe (Institute of Musicology at the UoC); Aycha Riffi and Wolfgang Zielinski (Grimme Institute)
Research assistants: Judith Kirberger, Katharina Makosch
Website: https://www.mediale-stimmen.de/
Since the introduction of voice-based navigation devices around the year 2000, it has become increasingly commonplace for digital devices to communicate using human-sounding voices. The beginnings of electronic voice synthesis date back to the late 1930s. Nevertheless, before the general availability of 'talking' navigation devices, computers and smartphones, it was mainly the privilege of fantastic films, radio plays and television series to give media users an idea of the nature of artificial voices. However, just as media-constructed voices in fictional contexts cannot be neutral, the voices of recent applications and operating systems are not neutral. This can be seen, for example, in the current debate about the inherent sexism of voice assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Alexa. However, there is a lack of studies that take into account intersectional, cross-cultural and media-practical aspects of vocal designs, not only with regard to IT products, but media production in general.
The aim of the project is therefore the systematic investigation of vocal designs circulating in the media under the guiding question of which social concepts - e.g. of appropriateness, authority and agency - underlie vocalities constructed in the media or are communicated through them. The current presence of digitally generated or transformed voices sometimes gives rise to contradictions. Although voice assistants, navigation systems, etc. could use alternative vocal sound models beyond fixed norms, the desire for normative vocalities (at least as suggested by technology companies, among others) seems unbroken. This raises the question of the extent to which vocally bound human-machine communication requires familiarity (e.g. by bringing technical devices to life along the lines of Amazon Alexa). Can digital updates of cultural norms for reasons of familiarity lead to habituation effects that make us lose sight of other options and therefore limit diversity? The default voices in service applications in Western markets are still generally coded as female. Alternative models such as the genderless voice with the designation Q - at least declared as such - are less well known. The project will also investigate the situation in societies in the Global South in order to gain an understanding of the interplay between media transmission and imprinting outside of Western contexts.
The project also aims to investigate the possibilities and effects of voice transformation and the artificialization of individual voices in Snapchat and comparable apps, but also, for example, for communication in online games. In analogy to the visual modification of avatars with virtual disguises, so-called voice skins are offered here. Being able to assume other identities through instantaneous changes to the personal voice certainly fits into the world of anonymized online communication, but fundamentally contradicts the idea of the vocal individuality and distinctiveness of an articulating person, as it has shaped the discourses of cultural studies voice research to date. Thus, the study of voice practices in the digital age can also initiate a revision of corresponding theoretical considerations.
When researching the field of medially constructed vocalities, media-historical contexts should be considered in addition to current phenomena: When and how did the humanization of artificial voices and the blending of the two vocal spheres first occur? How does the vocal construction of social, ethnic and gender-related role models in film, television, radio plays and video games in the past compare to today? In this context, practices such as the dubbing of films and the localization of video games will also be examined more closely with regard to the transferability of cultural characteristics and the interaction of vocal sound and spoken language.